Spring is supposed to be the season of renewal, but it has been ableak few weeks for the basketball program at Arizona, where fournonsenior starters from the NCAA finalist Wildcats have declaredthemselves eligible for the June 27 NBA draft. As of Monday, 15underclassmen from 13 other schools also had said they wanted toturn pro. Meanwhile, on April 10, the NCAA's management councilpassed a proposal that would enable certain underclassmen to turntheir athletic talent into instant cash by taking out a one-time,$20,000 bank loan, with the promise to pay it back, presumablyfrom the earnings they would make as pros.

The only thing more ludicrous than the message this ideaconveys--Stay in school! We'll pay you!--is the notion that such aninducement could compare with the kind of coin awaiting afirst-round draft pick. Asked last week whether a $20,000 loanwould have enticed him to return for his senior year, Arizonaforward Richard Jefferson laughed and said, "Heck no. That wouldbarely cover the down payment on my Mercedes."

Given the glacial pace at which NCAA legislation moves and thefact that only about 250 of its 363,000 student-athletes would beeligible for the loans, it's vexing that the NCAA would spend somuch time doing so little to help so few. The loan program,scheduled for a vote by the board of directors this week, wouldbe modeled after the NCAA's disability-insurance plan. In thatplan American Specialty Underwriters (ASU), a Massachusettsinsurance company determines, with help from pro personnelexperts, which prospects in baseball, basketball, football andhockey are probable high draft picks and thereby qualify forcoverage. Under the loan rule the NCAA would serve as a conduitbetween ASU-approved athletes and a yet-to-be-determined lendinginstitution. Each student would pay back his loan after he leftschool, regardless of whether he became a pro.

Although the NCAA is to be applauded for easing its draconianregulations on compensation, it's troubling that it's notaddressing the needs of all its student-athletes. The fewcommonsense proposals that are floating around, such as one for aspecial fund to cover such expenses as airfare home for theholidays, are still years from being enacted. "This is exactlywhat's wrong with our sport," says St. John's coach Mike Jarvis."All the attention is being paid to a few superstars instead ofthe majority of kids."

A study by the NCAA's subcommittee on agents and amateurism foundthat many of its regulations concerning pay-for-play could betraced to Victorian England, where aristocrats concocted arcanerules to prevent commoners from participating in their sportingevents. "The idea was to create class distinctions," sayssubcommittee chair Christine Grant. Given the windfall to come in2003, when CBS's 11-year, $6 billion television contract kicksin, the NCAA should not be creating greater class distinctions.It should be catering to the masses. --Seth Davis

Ostensibly owing to the popularity of its Freestyle commercial(SI, March 12), Nike said last week that the airing of another adfeaturing Kings guard Jason Williams has been put on hold. Theprovocative spot was to depict Williams's complexiontransmogrifying from black to white as the commercial progresses."The premise is that there's no black basketball and no whitebasketball," says Nike spokesman Scott Reames. "Jason's point is,'I play basketball; it doesn't matter what color my skin is.'"

It does, however, seem to matter to Williams what color someoneelse's skin is. During a Feb. 28 Kings-Warriors game, SantaClara, Calif., lawyer Michael Ching, 39, an Asian-American,heckled Williams with such comments as, "Get used to sitting onthe bench." According to Ching and others in the stands, Williamsresponded with a slur-filled screed that, by comparison, makesJohn Rocker, Allen Iverson and Charlie Ward look like beacons ofenlightenment. After calling Ching a "slant-eyed motherf-----,"Williams mimicked the rat-a-tat of gunfire and announced, "I'llshoot all you Asian motherf------. Do you remember the VietnamWar? I'll kill y'all like that. Just like Pearl Harbor." (Therudimentary history lesson will follow the diversity training.)Williams concluded by asking Ching, "Are you a fag?"

After an investigation, the NBA fined Williams $15,000, and heissued a mealy-mouthed apology ("I did not intend any disrespectto the Asian community or any other community...."). The leaguethen deftly spun the incident into near oblivion before one ofits most marketable players could become a cause celebre.

Still, an uncomfortable question lingers: But for race, whataccounts for Williams's celebrity? Would the NBA and Nikecontinue to promote him--not to mention gloss over his appallingtransgression--were he not white? This season alone he has beensuspended for violating the league's drug policy and sagelyremarked that as a child he should have spent more timepracticing his jump shot and less time reading. Williams isundeniably flashy, but name another point guard with a big-timeendorsement deal and star status who averaged less than 10 pointsa game, ranked 27th in assist-to-turnover ratio and is so erratiche's often benched during key stretches of games.

In part because of the thorny issues it evokes, Williams says hehates his nickname, White Chocolate. "Forget all of y'all who aretripping about this racial stuff," he said of his crossoverimage. The real concern is why people aren't tripping more aboutthis racial stuff. Regardless, the sobriquet is fitting. Likewhite chocolate, Williams was tantalizing at first. But the morewe taste, the less appealing he becomes. --L. Jon Wertheim

burning Question

Q Why do baseballs float?

A They're hard (ask anyone who's felt a Roger Clemens beanball).They're heavy (a regulation baseball weighs a solid 5 1/4ounces). And unlike footballs and basketballs, they're notfilled with air. So when Barry Bonds hits a tater into McCoveyCove, as he did last week when he smacked his 500th careerhomer, why doesn't the pill disappear into the depths? Turns outa baseball, which is made up of a cork-and-rubber center, 219yards of wool yarn, 150 yards of cotton string and a cowhidecover, isn't dense enough to sleep with the fishes. According toRobert Adair, professor emeritus of physics at Yale and authorof The Physics of Baseball, for an object to sink it must weighmore than the fluid it displaces. A baseball, like a steelbattleship, weighs less than the displaced water. "Most organicthings float," says Adair. "They're not dense enough to sink. Abaseball is mostly organic materials." Good news for all thosesouvenir-seeking McCovey Cove sailors.

pay CheckBallpark Vendors

The song may encourage buyers to go for the peanuts and CrackerJack, but when it comes to concession sales, nobody tops the beerman. Vendors selling suds at big league parks--by far the mostcoveted of stadium sales jobs--can make as much as $200 a game.

All hawkers, as stadium vendors are known, are paid mainly oncommission, which ranges from 10% to 20% of their sales. "Themore effort they put into it, the more they make," says TomOlson, who runs the concessions at Milwaukee's Miller Park. Beervendors typically make a smaller percentage (10% at Miller versus12% to 15% for food vendors) because their product moves fasterand costs more. Hot dog and souvenir vendors earn in the $75 to$100 range. Peanut and soda guys are low on the totem pole;they're lucky to pull in $75 a game.

Crowd size, weather and the length of a game all affect sales."You do much better business on a hot, muggy night," says DanSmith, a senior VP for concessionaire Volume Services America."Now that games are longer, you've got a much bigger window tosell. Back in the '70s, when guys like Ron Guidry pitchedtwo-hour games, you really had to move." Who staffs the stands?Most vendors are part-timers; many are retirees orschoolteachers, who, like their students, make the most ofsummer by spending it at the ballpark.

Word for Word

Last week, Stephen Dunn, a professor of creative writing atRichard Stockton College in Pomona, N.J., won the Pulitzer Prizefor poetry for his 11th collection, Different Hours. Dunn, whoplayed basketball at Hofstra in the late '50s, has used sportsin his work as a metaphor for the travails of everyday life.Here are excerpts from some of his sports-themed poems.

From Losing Steps

It's probably a Sunday morningin a pickup game, and it's clearyou've begun to leavefewer people behind.

Your fakes are as good as ever,but when you moveyou're like the Southern Pacificthe first time a car kept up with it,

your opponent at your hip,with you all the way to the rim. Five years earlierhe'd have been part of the air

that stayed behind youin your ascendance.On the sidelines they're saying,He's lost a step.

From Evanescence

Later while they make love, he thinks ofMantle's long home run in the '57 Series.

My favorite second basemanhad gone 0 for 5--there it was,in black and white. How many of uscould bear a daily recordof exactly what we'd done?

Blotter

FloodedThe phone lines of the Jacksonville office of investment companyDeutsche Banc Alex. Brown, after a fan at Safeco Field hung abanner during Rangers shortstop Alex Rodriguez's April 16 returnto Seattle that read NEED A LOAN? call 1-800-252-ALEX. The phonenumber, a cheeky reference to Rodriguez's $252 million contractwith Texas, happened to be the same as that of the investmenthouse.

AnnouncedBy 2001 Hall of Fame inductee Dave Winfield, that on his plaquein Cooperstown he'll be depicted wearing the cap of the Padres,for whom he played eight seasons, rather than that of theYankees, for whom he played an equal span, or the Blue Jays,with whom he won a World Series. "I went with the team that gaveme my first opportunity," said Winfield. The Padres alsorecently gave Winfield, who's on their board of directors, a newMercedes.

SuedPop Warner Little Scholars Inc., by Gator Rebhan, 34, coach ofthe two-time national Midget Division champion Suniland (Fla.)Sundevils. Pop Warner suspended Rebhan, claiming he had hisplayers run up the score in a 56-6 win over the Marshall HeightsBison of Washington, D.C., in this year's Pop Warner Super Bowl.Says Rebhan, "They're trying to break up the team by getting ridof the coaching staff."

Shut DownIn anticipation of a bankruptcy filing, Quokka Sports, the SanFrancisco company that ran SaltLake2002.com, NBCOlympics.com,FinalFour.net, Golf.com and CART.com. The Salt Lake OrganizingCommittee is using its own resources to run the website of the2002 Games until another partner can be found.

RenamedThe stadium of English Unibond League soccer club WittonAlbion. Thanks to a sponsorship deal the team recently signedwith a beverage-store chain, the venue will now be called BargainBooze Stadium.

Farewell, Goodwill?

The Goodwill Games have always been an oddity on theinternational sports calendar. The brainchild of mediabillionaire Ted Turner, who founded them in 1986 to foster betterU.S.-Soviet relations, the games have become increasinglyirrelevant in the post-cold war era. What's more, although heftyappearance fees have helped attract elite athletes such asMichael Johnson and Marion Jones, the event has never caught onwith the public. Television ratings have been paltry for the foursummer games and one winter games, which combined have lost $100million.

So it wasn't a complete shock when speculation arose last weekthat AOL Time Warner, parent company of Turner Sports (and SI),may be balking at picking up its $30 million share for thisyear's Goodwill Games, scheduled for Aug. 29 to Sept. 6 inBrisbane, Australia. Given the well-publicized cost-cutting atthe company and Ted Turner's decreased influence in the newlycombined AOL Time Warner, the games look to be an easy target."Anything this company can do to save money it will do," saysAndrea Rice, media analyst for Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown. "If AOLcan't turn around the Goodwill Games financially, it may decideto divest from its investment."

Advocates of the games may be encouraged that Turner protegeTerry McGuirk has been recently installed as the CEO of TurnerSports Teams, which oversees such AOL Time Warner properties asthe Braves, the Hawks and the Thrashers. McGuirk says thecompany's pro teams won't be subject to the same tight budgetrestrictions as other divisions. Whether that protection extendsto the Goodwill Games remains to be seen, but Mark Lazarus,president of Turner Sports, says, "We believe the Goodwill Gamesare an important piece of our company's portfolio."

Organizers hope to show this year that the games can make money.Brisbane organizing committee chairman Wayne Goss says his eventhas secured 19 corporate sponsors, who'll provide a total of $18million. That, plus AOL Time Warner's share, would assure thatthe games at least break even for the first time. Says MikeSculley, executive director of the organization bidding to bringthe 2005 games to Phoenix: "Obviously the games have to startturning a profit or I wouldn't blame AOL Time Warner for pullingthe plug."

the Beat

Michael Jordan's back! Yes it's true: Jordan is returning...tothe big screen. Twentieth Century Fox has just bought a scriptcalled Like Mike, about a teen who receives a pair of Jordan'ssneakers and discovers they have magical powers. The kid puts onthe shoes, is transformed into a hoops stud and catapults to theNBA, leading the Bulls to a title. (Hey, it's Hollywood.) Lil'Bow Wow, the 14-year-old rap sensation, is in talks to star. MJ'sinvolvement has yet to be determined, although screenwriterMichael Elliot says, "I'm hoping he'll be in it."...

A strange twist in Reggie Miller's divorce case: Although Millerand his ex-wife, Marita Stavrou, finalized their divorce earlierthis month, they're still fighting over assets. On April 17,Stavrou filed a petition in State Supreme Court in Manhattanasking Miller to explain "several substantial transactions" toMiller's former teammate Mark Jackson. Miller's lawyer, JimBuck, acknowledges that Miller wrote checks to Jackson but saysthe money was to pay off gambling losses. Buck also says themoney was rightfully Miller's and the sums are minor comparedwith Stavrou's $5 million settlement. (For example, Jacksonreceived three checks in 1999 totaling $15,000. Jackson couldn'tbe reached for comment.) "This is a bitter knee-jerk reaction byMarita to embarrass Reggie," says Buck. Stavrou's lawyerdeclined to comment....

Former Oilers defensive back Bo Eason has written Runt of theLitter, a semiautobiographical play that's generating heavybuzz. Runt features Eason telling how he was pushed by adomineering father and how he labored in the shadow of hisbrother, former NFL quarterback Tony Eason. Last week CastleRock optioned the feature rights to Runt, and the play, whichrecently workshopped in L.A., may open on Broadway this fall.